Introduced by British Museum director Neil MacGregor this event will use a line-up of expert presenters to create a one-off experience including contributions from historian Mary Beard, Rachel de Thame revealing life in the garden, Giorgio Locatelli in the kitchen and Bettany Hughes in the bedroom.

This unique live broadcast event will take cinema audiences round the major exhibition Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the company of renowned experts and practitioners who, alongside live performance – music, poetry and eye-witness accounts – will bring to life extraordinary objects, some never seen outside Italy before. Interviews throughout the exhibition will be intercut with stunning specially recorded films in Italy, showing Pompeii and Herculaneum and the sleeping Vesuvius.

This exhibition is the first ever held on these important cities at the British Museum, and the first such major exhibition in London for almost 40 years. The exhibition has a unique focus, looking at the Roman home and lives of the people who lived nearly 2000 years ago in Pompeii and Herculaneum, both typical Roman towns at the heart of the empire.

The live event will take visitors along a Roman street and into a local house with atrium entrance, bedroom, kitchen, dining room, sitting room and garden. In the company of experts such as the curator of the exhibition Paul Roberts; Professor of Classics at Cambridge University, Mary Beard; historian Bettany Hughes; as well as interviewees such as chef Giorgio Locatelli and gardener Rachel de Thame, we will be taken close up to the famous casts of the people caught in the volcanic heat as well as the objects from their daily lives. Examples include intricate pieces of jewellery, sculpture, mosaics, cooking equipment and even food including an intact loaf of bread with the baker’s stamp still on it. Also on display will be wooden furniture carbonized by the high temperatures of the ash that engulfed Herculaneum which are extremely rare finds that would not have survived at Pompeii – showing the importance of combining evidence from the two cities. The furniture includes a linen chest, an inlaid stool and even a garden bench. Perhaps the most astonishing and moving piece is a baby’s crib.

For Schools:The British Museum also plans to follow the premiere on 18 June with another first: 'Life And Death In Pompeii And Herculaneum', a live transmission for school children across the country on 19 June also from the British Museum and aimed at Key Stage 2 and 3. Schools all over the UK will have the opportunity to visit their local cinema for a fun, interactive show which will enhance cross curriculum learning.

For more information on School bookings and to book tickets please contact your local Empire Cinemas here.